Questions tagged [concrete-block]
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How can I construct an outdoor concrete pad and retaining wall that will also work as a basement floor and foundation wall?
I know at least a few ways to pour a concrete pad for long term outdoor use. And I can build a retaining wall, poured or from cinder blocks (or from timber, but that's less relevant here).
I am less ...
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Is gravel required under a concrete slab that is beneath a fence (not supporting it)?
I have a vinyl fence around the back of my house. The posts are already supported by cement. I want to create concrete forms in between the posts to cover the dirt so I don't have to deal with weeds ...
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How can I pour a 20' x 20 ' slab on a slope?
What is the best way to pour a slab that is 20 ft x 20 ft but has a slope. The grade is 18 inches higher on one side
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Water in Basement After Heavy Rain
link to photos
Hi everyone. I consistently have water in my basement on the Eastern wall of my house every time it rains heavily - 1.5 inches or more in a 24 hour period. The water seeps in through ...
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How can I seal/stabilize crumbling concrete blocks from the 1930s?
This is a pillar supporting an enclosed porch roof on a 1930s Craftsman in Northeast US. The porch is usually unheated during winter but it is entirely enclosed and not subject to rain/snow.
As you ...
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Poured Concrete, blocks or something else for single detached step
Good Afternoon,
I am redoing a patio at the front of our home and need some advice on how to handle a single step up to the existing front patio. Techo-Bloc calls for a pre-existing concrete step to ...
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Suggestions for repairing disintegrating concrete blocks in garage?
Our garage has a row of filled concrete blocks that are tied to the foundations, upon which the sill plate is attached. One corner has begun to let in water, and the freeze/thaw cycles of our ...
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How do I fill only the top two courses of an existing CMU wall with grout?
I have an existing CMU wall that is open on the top so you can see down through the holes to the bottom. I'm going to put a beam on top of it, and the structural engineer said I need to fill the top ...
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How should I finish this basement wall?
House built in 1970 in climate zone 3. These basement walls were apparently finished twice, the second time with drywall and originally with just wood against the concrete blocks with plaster as ...
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Mildew at the base of exterior block wall
The back wall of my row house is made of uninsulated block with a cement coating that looks like stucco. There is mildew / mold on the wall at the ground level that has slowly been getting worse.
The ...
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Should I tie cinderblock wall into existing poured foundation?
I have a walk-out basement with two garage doors. I'd like to remove these garage doors and fill in the gaps in the foundation, and then add one or two service doors in their place.
I'm wondering if I ...
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How thick of an arched concrete slab needed for root cellar roof
We are building a 6' x 6' root cellar with a dirt floor and concrete block walls. The walls will be on 16"w x 12"d concrete footings and 1/2" vertical rebar every 3rd hole. (~24" ...
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Reinforcing a Vertically Plumb Concrete Block Retaining Wall
I'm in the process of replacing a retaining wall that was supporting a small "flower bed" in the front of this house because it had started to lean to the point it was unsafe. Unfortunately, ...
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Thickness of concrete wall for deck construction
TL;DR: What thickness of a concrete wall underneath a deck should I go for? Is there any rule of thumb how to determine it?
I am planning to build a deck next to my house. The house is in a mild hill ...
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New home foundation opening
We are having a new home built. Can you tell me why there’s several openings near the foundation? Is it suppose to look this way? How will the builder fix it? Can water get in and mess up the ...
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Is there any benefit to building framed walls inside concrete block walls?
I'm hoping to buy a place of my own soon. The house has walls made of concrete blocks, finished with plaster and paint. It looks great and doesn't need any changes.
However, I've been thinking that I'...
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Corner of my house is missing with eroded concrete foundation. Is this quick fix enough?
Discovered this hole today in the corner of my cinder block foundation. Water is pooling there when it rains (another fix I need to do) but for now, I was going to chip out the loose piece, mix ...
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Smallest width California residential code compliant below grade R-5 cement masonry wall assembly?
I'm in California, IBC climate zone 3B, California climate zone 8, very high termite area.
I'm trying to determine the smallest width (for the total wall assembly) code compliant way to insulate (to R-...
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What work is needed to resolve water issues related to this settling slab?
Summary of issue
This house was built around 1960 on cinderblock foundation, and in 1980 an addition was built on an apparently-DIY concrete slab foundation. Part of that concrete slab extends beyond ...
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How to best fill wall-plug holes in a concrete wall?
My landlord took out some monitor they had originally left attached to a wall in my rental apartment, and has now left me with a nice decorative set of wall plug holes. Assume for the sake of ...
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Bottom wall getting dirty
I have an 8 foot retaining concrete wall. I painted it a few months ago, but it seems that when the water hits the soil it jumps back up and hits the bottom wall covering it in dirt.
I was wondering ...
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What is the best way to run a circuit over a 3' concrete block wall (for a baseboard thermostat)?
I'm installing a Mysa wifi line voltage thermostat to control an electic baseboard heater mounted against a concrete block wall.
This is in a 2nd floor detached garage, and the 2 story structure was ...
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Sufficient Concrete Thickness for Table?
I'm planning on making a Concrete patio table. My plan is to make a 6ft x 3ft Concrete top. The frame will be 4 legs. I will have 3 aluminum angles running vertically underneath the length of the ...
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Can a partition be built with 440 x 210 x 50mm 3.6N blocks? and How?
Can a 2.5 metre to ceiling by 2 metre wide internal partition be built with 440 x 210 x 50mm 3.6N block? and How? It will be supported either side onto existing wall and above and below.
How does one ...
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Vinyl siding on concrete walls
I have to install vinyl siding on an exterior wall built from concrete blocks.
Anyone have any tips on correctly weatherproofing and insulating? I was thinking to lay 3/4 EPS rigid insulation then 1/4 ...
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Florida footing depth
Could someone help me read this?
Florida Building Code
The structures on the left and right side will be new. Just outdoor multi purpose areas with fixed roofs. Left side for cooking (kitchenette)/ ...
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Building a block wall up a steep slope
I would like to build a block wall up a steep slope, maybe 30%, and I don’t want to “stair step” the top, keeping it level, because it would render the wall nearly useless at the low points. If I have ...
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Sinking Garage Foundation Repair
My garage is attached to my home which is a single level ranch on a slab foundation. The garage has concrete blocks as footing along one wall. The garage floor is its own slab. Both the garage floor ...
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How to attach this wooden beam to concrete blocks
I want to attach a wooden beam to a hollow concrete block to use as one side of a washing line.
How should I do that?
Are there any attachments or fixings that I should use?
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Best permanent female-thread anchor in block construction?
I'm helping a friend install hurricane panels over the windows in their house. These panels are 5/8"-thick extruded clear(ish) plastic sheets, dimensionally similar to 5/8" plywood. These ...
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Is this basement footer going to cause issues? [closed]
I'm having an addition put on my house with a full basement. The contractor poured the footer and is getting ready to do the foundation walls. He marked the lines for the walls, and I couldn't help ...
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How to Anchor to Top of CMU Cinder Block Wall?
I want to install a fence along the top of a retaining wall. The wall is made of standard 8x8x16 CMUs and is filled with 3500psi concrete and #4 rebar in every cell. The posts have 4"x4" ...
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Does effective insulation of concreate block contribute more to energy efficiency in hot weather or cold weather [closed]
I am building a grout filled CMU house in the Ozarks. I have limited funds at this point and so I would like to focus my budget on thermal control where it will be needed most (i.e. heating / cooling)....
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How to get retaining blocks with a set end angle
I am trying to section off hexagonal areas in my yard. My initial thought was to get those trapezoidal blocks you can use to build retaining walls (Home Depot refers to them as Retaining Wall Blocks), ...
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Resources for extreme DIY'er to build brick garage
I'm an experienced DIY'er here in the upper midwest of the United States and was planning on building my own stick built 16x24 foot detached garage this fall 2021 or spring 2022. As we all know, the ...
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How to put a clean hole in concrete block?
I am building a brick wall from concrete blocks. Note that these concrete blocks just provide a facade, don't hold any weight except an additional layer of same bricks above them.
The blocks are 4&...
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Lateral force on posts resting on concrete deck blocks
I am building a floating deck that is not attached to the house and is 2ft in height. The 4x4 posts are inserted into and resting on top of a concrete decking block. The post is just sitting inside ...
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What is N/mm² in block characteristics?
In brick/block datasheet I found strength parameter in N/mm². Does it mean how much weight can a brick hold? So, for example 10 N/mm² of 10x10cm brick could hold 100.000N ~ 10 tons? Is this correct? ...
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Should the high side of a concrete block retaining wall be sealed?
I am mid-project in a DIY yard project. I have subbed out a large retaining wall to a civil / wall contractor. It’s 220 feet long, between 2-5′ in height, and makes 2 90-degree turns. It’s built to ...
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Help modifying window opening. American Concrete Institute standards? Building code?
I'm remodeling my kitchen and part of the work that I want to do involves modifying my window rough openings. Currently, the windows in my kitchen are lower than the countertop backsplash and I want ...
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What concrete type should I use for a pizza oven base slab?
I am building a pizza oven and kitchen area in my garden. I am trying to work out if there is a specific type of concrete I need.
My question is only about the concrete slab (the foundation). The slab ...
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How to prepare the ground before laying concrete
I am building a pizza oven and kitchen area in my garden. I am trying to work out how to lay a 2m*2m concrete slab.
My calculation for the weight (that the concrete slab needs to support) are
Dense ...
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Building a retaining wall with dense concrete blocks, best way to lay each course?
I've seen a few walls that use the top method versus the more common stretcher/running bond, are there any benefits to doing it the first way?
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How to create nice corners when building a wall with these concrete blocks?
In a previous question, Why do many concrete blocks have this strange shape on either end?, I asked about the design of the concrete blocks having an I-shape at the ends.
That explains how to make a ...
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Why do many concrete blocks have this strange shape on either end?
I want to build a simple wall out of concrete blocks and notice some have this strange shape, the ends look like a capital letter "I". As best as I can tell from any picture, this isn't like ...
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Bricking up door/damp
I'm about to block up this doorway and have noticed damp in the bottom corner. If I were to lay a DPC between the screed and first layer of blocks, would that solve the issue....or is it going to ...
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Is it safe to use a wedge expansion bolt in concrete blocks?
I want to hang a Rogue P-4 pull-up bar from a wall. The wall is concrete block with .5" of strapping on it, and 1" drywall over that. The pull-up bar is made with 1" steel tube. ...
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How can I fill in an interior hole in a block wall?
In an attempt to run Cat6 Ethernet cables to my living room, I cut a handy box sized hole in the the block, but was unable to run the cable down from the attic at the top of the wall (it was ...
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How to cut a concrete block without expensive tools?
I am building a wall from concrete retention wall bricks. I need to cut one brick in half so it can fit in the wall. The solutions here are too expensive, I only need to cut one brick. Is there any ...
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How to glue HDPE plastic to concrete blocks?
I am using PL 500 to glue concrete bricks to each other. I need to line the back of the brick wall with some high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic tarps for water-proofing. The PL 500 says it will ...
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